Betaworks releases redesigned Instapaper following acquisition

Following its acquisition of Instapaper in April, Betaworks on Wednesday released a substantial redesign of the reading service. Betaworks has focused on upgrading performance, improving reliability and updating the design of Instapaper, keeping with Instapaper's original "no-nonsense" functionality.

The redesign went live on Wednesday, with a sleek look that doesn't take much to figure out. To the left you'll find a navigation bar with options to sort your Unread, Liked, and Archived web articles, along with the ability to search and make settings to your account. The main part of the page provides a full list of the articles you've chosen to look at. Clicking on an article will provide a minimalistic view, with a soft-white background for easy reading. At the top of an article you can like or archive a post, along with changing the font and sharing the article.

Betaworks is promising more features for Instapaper, as well. Most notably improved Instapaper iOS and Android apps, browser extensions with "lots of new and excellent features," better file management and support, tools and options for sorting and filtering your unread queue, and data-powered personal recommendations. Instapaper is giving select users beta access.

Instapaper was founded in 2008 by web developer and former Tumblr CTO Marco Arment. He sold it to Betaworks earlier this year for an undisclosed sum. Arment didn't go into the details on why he sold Instapaper, except that he "had a lot of trouble keeping up with it". Betaworks has the resources to keep Instapaper chugging along. "I wouldn’t put Instapaper in just anyone’s hands, and I know that they’ll do right by it," wrote Arment.

Instapaper isn't Betaworks' first reconstruction of a web service. Most notably, the New York City start-up studio and seed stage venture capital company took over the struggling Digg and turned it into the web product it is today. It also quickly launched Digg Reader following the closing down of Google Reader in July.

The baby of the Lint team, Jake is responsible for covering the latest news out of the US. He began writing technology news at 15, covering the world of Apple for several publications. He has a deep interest in the latest gadgets and gizmos. Outside of breaking news, Jake enjoys drumming, music and photography.